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NBA Raptors to train in Burnaby

The Toronto Raptors' Lucas Nogueira, right, guards the Dallas Mavericks' Gal Mekel during an NBA summer league in Las Vegas.

Photograph by: John Locher
, AP

VANCOUVER - The Toronto Raptors will spend part of their preseason hang time in Burnaby, as part of the National Basketball Association’s team objective to extend their marketing reach to Canada’s Pacific shores.

The Raptors have scheduled a news conference Wednesday at Fortius Sport and Health to announce that their preparations for the 2014 season will include workouts at the integrated athlete training centre in Burnaby. The training sessions will be piggybacked on the Raptors’ Oct. 5 preseason game at Rogers Arena against the Sacramento Kings.

“We’ve been working pretty closely with Raptors the past couple of months to try and set this whole thing up,” said Lawrie Johns, executive director for Basketball B.C. “It’s really interesting and exciting. They’ll be running coaching clinics and skill development clinics for kids, which will help with grassroots development. That’s something we’re really pleased about.”

The Raptors will open training camp at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, then move it West to coincide with the exhibition game against the Kings at Rogers Arena. Toronto’s most recent pre-season appearance in Vancouver was in October, 2010, when the Raps and Phoenix Suns played a friendly before 18,123 fans.

“I think Vancouver is a great, great basketball city,” Raptors head coach Dwane Casey told The Vancouver Sun earlier this month. “Even when the NBA was in an infant state there, GM Place (the former Rogers Arena) was packed. I love the city. It’s just unfortunate the right ownership didn’t get involved in owning the team (the Vancouver Grizzlies left for Memphis in 2001). My dream is for Vancouver and Seattle to get teams again and create a three-way basketball rivalry (with Portland) in the Northwest. The fans would love it.”

Casey spent 11 seasons as an assistant coach with the Seattle SuperSonics and still resides in the East side suburb of Newcastle, Wash.

“I still believe an NBA team, run the right way, would work there,” said Raptors broadcaster Leo Rautins, a former NBA player and coach of Canada’s men’s national team. “The Raptors are very conscious of their impact on the game in Canada. Certainly, with the Raptors being Canada’s team right now, the marketing aspect is huge.”

An innovative $61 million training and sports centre, Fortius Sports and Health was co-founded by Rick Celebrini and Alex McKechnie, two fitness, physio and rehab experts with connections to the NBA.

Celebrini is the personal trainer of Los Angeles Lakers point guard Steve Nash. McKechie has worked with NBA elites of the past and present, including Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and Grant Hill. He is the current director of sports science for the Raptors.

The Burnaby sports institute has a physiotherapy, massage therapy, hydrotherapy, chiropractic and medical component, all integrated under the same roof, which is appealing to the Raptors, who’ve sent players to the facility for treatment.

Nash is on the advisory board of the centre and was in attendance for a soft opening of the gymnasium in May, 2013. The facility was officially opened last September.

The gym can be converted into two basketball courts or one regulation NBA court.

“It’s a one-stop shop,” said Fortius spokesman Caleb Cousens.

He said the intention is that Fortius and the Raptors can conclude a longer term agreement whereby the NBA team would train in Burnaby beyond this season.

“We hope that would become the situation in short order,” Cousens said. “We want to prove that it’s a good facility for them, and that they’ll be back for years to come.”

“They (Raptors) want to become Canada’s team,” Johns added. “This is part of their marketing, to get more bums in front of the TV set. It’s a bit of a challenge out here, with the whole Steve Nash thing, but they’re trying hard to do it the right way by also working with us at the grassroots level.”

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